MEDICARE: LARGEST DENIER OF HEALTH CARE CLAIMS

October 7, 2009

Which mainstream health insurance provider rejects the most claims? According to the American Medical Association's (AMA) National Health Insurance Report Card, it's not the private health insurers that President Obama and the Democrats routinely demonize, but Medicare, the government-run health care scheme that the President's "public option" will be modeled on, says the Heritage Foundation.

According to the AMA's National Health Insurance Report Card:

Medicare denies 6.85 percent of its claims, higher than any private insurer.

Aetna was second, denying 6.80 percent of its claims.

The denial rate is more than double any private insurer's average.

What's fascinating, says the Heritage Foundation, is that although the American Medical Association (AMA) has endorsed a public option, some member physicians at the group's annual meeting (in June) likened the notion to communism." In short, the AMA is effectively endorsing a public plan that is the largest denier of health care claims.

President Obama has promised that if we like our health insurance we can keep it. But will those who are forced into the public option -- which has been estimated to be minimum of tens of millions of currently insured Americans in addition to those "46 million" currently uninsured -- be satisfied with their care given that the government program Medicare's denial of claims outranks any private insurer's, asks Heritage?

Source: David Weinberger, "Medicare: Largest Denier of Health Care Claims," The Heritage Foundation, October 6, 2009.